At last we have the design for an appropriate memorial to the aspirations of the Bush regime, courtesy of the Washington Post's Tom Toles

Tom Toles, in Sunday's Washington Post (click to enlarge)

In case you missed it, or didn't catch the exact exchange, here is Vice President "Big Dick" Cheney, in an interview with ABC News' Martha Raddatz last Wednesday in Oman, showing that he knows even less about Abraham Lincoln and the American Civil War than he seems to know about the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq:

MARTHA RADDATZ: Two-thirds of Americans say [the war in Iraq] is not worth fighting, and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives.

BIG DICK: So?

MARTHA RADDATZ: So -- you don't care what the American people think?

BIG DICK: No, I think you cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls. Think about what would have happened if Abraham Lincoln had paid attention to polls, if they had had polls during the Civil War. He never would have succeeded if he hadn't had a clear objective, a vision for where he wanted to go, and he was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars in order to get there. And this President has been very courageous, very consistent, very determined to continue down the course we were on and to achieve our objective. And that's victory in Iraq, that's the establishment of a democracy where there's never been a democracy, it's the establishment of a regime that respects the rights and liberties of their people, as an ally for the United States in the war against terror, and as a positive force for change in the Middle East. That's a huge accomplishment.

[from the transcript released by the Office of the Vice President]

Washingtonpost.com's Dan Froomkin has some fall-out from that interview in his column today, "Cheney's Unforgivable Egotism," which leads off with a suitably stinging response to Big Dick's even more astonishing declaration in another interview with Martha Raddatz--yesterday in Ankara, Turkey--responding to her request for "your thoughts" on "the milestone today of 4,000 dead in Iraq":

"The President carries the biggest burden, obviously; he's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans."

Here's Dan's take:

That President Bush and Vice President Cheney live in a bubble of flattery and delusion, largely sheltered from the people who are actually suffering from the consequences of their actions, is not exactly news.

But perhaps nothing has crystallized their detachment and self-involvement so vividly as Cheney's assertion yesterday that when it comes to the war in Iraq, it is Bush -- not the soldiers and Marines who fight and die, or their families -- who is bearing the biggest burden.

And in an era where failing to support the troops is the ultimate political sin, Cheney's breezy dismissal of their sacrifice -- heck, they're volunteers, and dying goes with the territory -- was jaw-dropping even by the vice president's own tone-deaf standards.

Does Cheney really believe that Bush's burden is so great? The president tells people he's sleeping just fine, thank you, and in public appearances appears upbeat beyond all reason.

Or does Cheney simply have no idea what it means to go to war? He and Bush, after all, famously avoided putting themselves in the line of fire when it was their time.

Or are they just so wrapped up in themselves they can't see how ridiculous it is to even suggest such a thing?